In advance of a significant donor conference next week, a United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) official has estimated that the damage caused by the deadly earthquakes that struck Turkey last month will surpass $100 billion.
The damage estimate presented by the government and supported by… international partners would be in excess of $100 billion, the UNDP’s Louisa Vinton said at a news briefing on Tuesday via video link from Gaziantep, a Turkish city that sustained significant damage in the earthquakes.
The shocks of February 6 killed more than 52,000 people in southern Turkey and northwest Syria. Several people were buried or crushed while they slept.
The provisional damage estimate is being used as the foundation for a donor conference on March 16 in Brussels to seek money for survivors and reconstruction, which Vinton claimed only applies to Turkey.
The World Bank had previously assessed the direct damage in Turkey to be $34.2 billion, but it now predicts substantially higher expenditures for recovery and reconstruction as well as losses to Turkey’s gross domestic product due to the quakes’ effects on the country’s economy.
According to Vinton, the Turkish government had estimated much greater damage with assistance from the UNDP, the World Bank, and the European Union.
This estimate would serve as the foundation for the recovery and reconstruction donor conference taking place the following week, she said.
Recovery costs “will clearly exceed that amount,” she added, adding that they also include creating better, more environmentally friendly infrastructure.
The worst-hit area of Turkey, Hatay, was described by Vinton as having “apocalyptic” sights and having hundreds of thousands of homes damaged. The need is great, but there are little resources available, she said.
According to Turkish government statistics, around two million survivors have been relocated to temporary housing or have been evacuated from the earthquake-devastated region.
A total of 46,000 people have been relocated to container homes, while approximately 1.5 million people are living in tents. The government claims that others are residing in guesthouses and dorms.
